06 August 2015

Welcome, welcome to the 92nd
issue of our WIN Newsletter. The ZIBF indeed was a place to be. Although we did
not exhibit, we were there! We hope that you fellow writers also submitted
stories to the Short Story Day Africa competition. Many thanks for your
unwavering support and please enjoy. Thank you.

WIN
MEETS AT ZIBF

About twelve Writers
International Network Zimbabwe (WIN-Zimbabwe) members held a brief meeting on
August 1, 2015, at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

Before meeting at around 3pm,
the members participated in the ZIBF Writers’ Workshop which took place at the
same venue from morning to midday.

Writer Emmanuel Sigauke, also a
WIN Board member, was guest of honour. Sigauke is based in the USA and had come
home for the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. He spoke at length about
creative writing and gave a few writing tips to the members.

Sigauke said he was happy with
the energy which the WIN group has on Whatsapp. The group, created in October
last year, has provided a platform for togetherness as well as for exchange of
criticism on poems posted.

WIN is in the process of
producing the first volume of a poetry magazine consisting of poems from this
popular media platform.

Apart from discussing internal
issues such re-constituting WIN-Zimbabwe, office accommodation and fundraising,
the meeting also offered a chance for members to familiarize and share ideas.
The award-winning organisation is planning a major strategic planning meeting
expected before the end of August.

Many thanks to the Zimbabwe
International Book Fair who had booked National Gallery for the writers’
workshop and allowed WIN-Zim to use the remaining time for its meeting and to
the National Gallery of Zimbabwe for having a love for writers.

POET
NHANHANGA LAUNCHES NEW BOOK

(Report
by WIN-Zimbabwe)

Poet Shumirai Nhanhanga thanks her mother who also attended the launch of her poetry anthology

It was Shumirai Nhanhanga’s afternoon
on Friday, July 31, 2015, a cool afternoon for the poet. The National Arts
Council auditorium in Mt Pleasant came alive, filled with the poet’s fellows,
workmates in the education sector, members of her church, friends and relatives
including her husband and mother. There were also representatives of Zimbabwe
Women Writers' chapters across Zimbabwe, who were also attending the Zimbabwe
International Book Fair which was running at the same time.

All had come for the official
launch of A Shower of Poetic Vistas
(2015, Zimbabwe Women Writers), an anthology of English poetry by Shumirai
Nhanhanga.

Audrey Chihota, representing
National Arts Council as well as in her capacity as longtime member of Zimbabwe
Women Writers, directed the ceremony.

The choice of the opening acts
at the launch proved that Nhanhanga’s passion for children is insurmountable.
Later she would remark, “I love children. I love my profession as a teacher. It
gives me joy to spend more time with children. They become my children. I don’t
like seeing them abused. They need my protection.”

First on stage was Mazvita
Chizhande, Nhanhanga’s daughter who is in Grade Six pupil Admiral Tait. In her
congratulatory message to her mother, Mazvita said, “Sometimes when I woke up
in the middle of the night I would see the lights on and wonder what mum is up
to. I would then see you fast asleep in your writing corner, holding a pen in
your hand. I would switch off the lights silently.”

She then thanked all the people
who have supported her mother, including doctors who took care of her mother
when she was not well.

Nine-year old Kundai Mugwedera,
who is in Grade 4 at the same school, read a poem from A Shower of Poetic
Vistas. Another of Nhanhanga’s young friends, only identified as Tinotenda,
also recited a poem titled ‘Proud to be Zimbabwean’ taken from the anthology.

Renowned poet Albert Nyathi
then read a poem titled ‘My Son’ which he said is a sequel to his popular poem
‘My Daughter’. Nyathi said he co-authored ‘My Son’ with novelist, poet and
storyteller Ignitius Mabasa.

In her speech, Guest of Honour
Chipo Muvezwa of Culture Fund of Zimbabwe said women have been marginalized
particularly in leadership positions in the creative sector.

Culture Fund financially
supported the publication of A Shower of
Poetic Vistas and Muvezwa said this support is in recognition of Zimbabwe
Women Writers work which nurtures women and give them space for
self-expression.

The session dubbed ‘Clawing
into Vistas’ helped the audience to understand Nhanhanga the poet. It was a
conversation between established writer Memory Chirere and Nhanhanga.

Chirere singled out as his
favourite the poem ‘Up in the Sky’ found in the anthology which he said he read
almost seven times. He asked if Nhanhanga remembers the incident that inspired
this poem.

“I was reflecting, thinking of
myself as unstoppable,” said Nhanhanga.

Chirere: I see your husband is
here, what would be your reaction if you found him reading your book?

Nhanhanga: It would be fun
indeed. It’s not always easy for writers to be understood by those close to
them. It will be fun.

Chirere also questioned at what
point the poet became certain that she had now completed a compact anthology and
Nhanhanga said she had written many poems and had performed them on stage.
People who often watched her perform encouraged her to put the poems in a
collection.

After the session, Nhanhanga
presented a gift to the Guest of Honour. The women ululated as the poet’s
autograph signing ceremony began. Embraces, song and dance…

CULTURE
FUND SPEARHEADS LOCAL ARTISTS’ WEB PRESENCE

(Report
by Win-Zimbabwe)

Nigel Mugani (above) is the Culture Fund's trainer for the Southplanet web portal

Zimbabwean artists will no
longer operate isolated from the international community, thanks to the internet
which no doubt has become an important tool.

In the spirit of creating more
opportunities for global exposure or visibility, the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe,
in partnership with Southplanet, has spearheaded the creation of a web portal
that connects artists and cultural operators from Africa, the Caribbean and the
Pacific.

Participants at the launch

According to the Southplanet
project logic document, the Southplanet web portal is a free data website,
comprising files that present principal artists, cultural operators,
organizations, events and cultural venues in Africa, the Caribbean and the
Pacific.

Speaking at the official launch
of the Southplanet portal held in Milton Park on July 31, 2015, the Culture
Fund Projects Officer Chipo Muvezwa said the portal was created after realizing
that whatever artists create, it needs marketing and networking.

The launch, attended by about
ten representatives of different arts and media organisations, including NAMA
award-winning WIN-Zimbabwe, did well to add some awareness about advantages of artists’
professional online presence, particularly how they can positively harness the
Southplanet website.

“Southplanet approached us with
the idea of profiling Zimbabwean artists and their activities. For us it became
a great opportunity to complement the activities that the Culture Fund is
already implementing. It also became an opportunity to network with other
similar-minded creative people from regions with Africa, the Caribbean and the
Pacific. We willingly partnered with Southplanet to update the data portal with
Zimbabwean artists,” explained Muvezwa.

She said the long-term
objective of the Southplanet web portal is to contribute with valuable
information that can be used policy- and decision makers who want to grow the
sector or create opportunities the creative sector.

For the past one year,
explained Muvezwa, the Culture Fund has managed to upload on the Southplanet
data website more than 1000 artist profiles for Zimbabwe and 466 artist
profiles for Malawi.

Asked if Culture Fund is
expanding to Malawi, Muvezwa said her organisation is only helping, having been
asked by Southplanet to assist Malawi because an organisation which had been
partnered with there was having difficulties. With the sterling work Culture
Fund has done so far regarding the web portal, Southplanet was sure Zimbabwe
could help Malawi, said Muvezwa.

In addition to artist profiles,
Culture Fund has also posted on the Southplanet web portal 48 cultural
newsletters for Zimbabwe and 30 for Malawi. In a bid to help artists have a practical
understanding of how Southplanet works, Culture Fund has also conducted two
trainings in Harare.

Nigel Mugamu, Founder of
‘263chat’, who was facilitator at the two workshops, demonstrated at the launch
how an artist can navigate the Southplanet website.

During discussion, there was an
exchange of ideas and information about this new tool. Poet Batsirai Chigama,
who also attended, shared her experience with Badhilisha poetry web portal
where she some of her featured also.

Artists at the launch

NEW
BOOK ON THE MARKET

True Lies is a Forteworx Press
latest publication, a short story anthology featuring ten new writers. The
anthology was edited by CJ Mylton. Obviously, you would now want to grab your copy!

YOUTH
PERSPECTIVE

With

Mimi Machakaire

Reflection
on the Short Story Day Africa ‘Flow Workshop’

Last month I was invited,
courtesy of WIN-Zimbabwe, to attend the Short Story Day Africa workshop along
with several other writers at Alliance De Francaise in Harare.

The purpose of the workshop was
to prepare writers for the short story day Africa competition with ‘water’
being the main theme. The schedule included the flowing sub topics: Working through a series of
possible themes relating to the theme of WATER, Discussing different approaches
to genre, Discuss writer's ideas/stories
and brainstorm ways to implement plotlines within the structure of the short
story and Discussing redrafting and
editing techniques, to ensure high standard manuscripts.

We spent the first hour
introducing ourselves and during which we learnt that the main aim was to make
sure that we all help each other understand the craft of our work. Then we (the
participants) were able to share our ideas and some were able to share the
opening to their story, allowing us to critic their work and give them pointers
or tips on how they can make it better. As one of the youngest members of the
group it was good to see the older generation accept some of the change in
concepts that the younger generation suggested.It was also good to notice that they understood that these days new
trends come up very often and the youth of today pay more attention to such.

Later we had our little break
and we were able to mix, get to know each other a little better and exchange
contact details as a way to keep in touch with the goings on in our little
literary world. The rest of the workshop was spent asking questions about
various issues concerning writing in general and the workshop itself. We shared
our gratitude for being able to participate within the workshop and all the
benefits the experience gave us. All in all, I feel the event was a success.
Being amongst my fellow writers helped me go home at the end of the day feeling
more confident about my work and I hope others felt the same.

As writers we need to spend
some time amongst our peers as a way to catch up on what others are doing,
learn from them and see how we can improve. Workshops are useful as they not
only expose you to new people but it is an easier access for networking. Keep
your eye out on more to come from Zimbabwe Women Writers as they hinted that
they are sure to host more workshops in the future and I can’t wait to attend
the next one.

(We
hope you submitted your short story!)

NDEBELE
NOVEL TO BE SERIALIZED ON WIN BLOG

Tsitsi N Ngwenya (second from left) poses with fellow writers at the ZIBF Indaba held at Crowne Plaza Monomotapa.

Starting in our next
newsletter, WIN-Zimbabwe will on this blog be serializing a Ndebele novel Inyawo Zayizolo by South-Africa based
writer Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya. We would like to thank the author for the
permission and seeing our blog as the right platform on which to showcase her
story.

Watch this space!

EXCLUSIVE
IMAGES FROM THE 2015 ZIBF

This year the Zimbabwe
International Book Fair was held from July 27 to August 1 under the theme ‘Growing the Knowledge Economy through
Research, Writing, Publishing and Reading’.